The Seneca Falls Convention. The 1848 Seneca Falls Convention
was the very first women's rights convention in
the United States, kicking off a decades long
struggle for gender equality. Here, we'll tell the story of
the Seneca Falls Convention and its lasting legacy-- a story that started
with a tea party. But we'll get into all
that in just a minute. First, we have to understand
the traditional 19th century gender roles. Men dominated the public
sphere by working, voting, or participating in
politics, while women stayed home to cook,
clean, and raise children. There were restrictions
in many states on women voting, owning
property, and having control of their own income. One woman who advocated
for women's rights in the 19th century
was Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a homemaker
in Seneca Falls, New York. Born into a progressive family,
Stanton grew up highly educated and enjoyed an active social and
political life before settling down with a family. But Stanton felt stifled
as just a wife and mother to seven children, longing
for a life outside the home. She soon found it in a
local group of Quaker women who embraced equality,
community, and activism. They invited her to a
small social gathering, a tea party, which
included a Quaker activist named Lucretia Mott. Mott and Stanton
had met years before at an anti-slavery
convention in London, but they were denied
entry due to their gender. It was during the Tea
Party that Stanton lamented the injustice of
a woman's unequal status in society. Her words resonated
with the others. So the women decided to
hold a gathering that would call attention
to the social, civil, and religious rights of women-- the first of its kind
in the United States. It became known as the
Seneca Falls Convention, taking place on July 19 and
20th 1848 with over 300 people in attendance. Like Stanton and Mott,
many in attendance were also active in the
anti-slavery movement, including Frederick Douglass,
a former slave and abolitionist who was one of the few men
and the only African-American to attend. At the convention, they read
the Declaration of Sentiment's, a document drafted by
Stanton and modeled after the Declaration
of Independence. Declaring, we hold these
truths to be self-evident, that all men and women
are created equal. The sentiments outlined the
civil and political rights denied to American women, which
included education, property ownership, child custody
in the event of a divorce, and most importantly,
the right to vote. On the second day
of the convention, 12 resolutions were passed and
signed by 68 women and 32 men. The Seneca Falls Convention
was the first time that American women
demanded a change and it caused quite a
stir around the country. Many newspapers mocked them
with unflattering political cartoons, while
columns ridiculed the convention as dull
and uninteresting, or insane and ludicrous. One writer declared
equal rights for women to be a monstrous
injury to all mankind. The wave of negative press
was too humiliating for some of the participants to
handle, particularly those who had signed the
Declaration of Sentiments. Several went as
far as withdrawing their names from the document
and joining the opposition. The public shaming
didn't stop the movement, the impact and promise of
the Seneca Falls Convention was undeniable. Women like Elizabeth
Cady Stanton felt a renewed sense
of purpose and threw themselves headlong into
the fight for equal rights. A month later, a second
larger convention was held in Rochester with
the Declaration of Sentiments gaining 107
additional signatures. The Seneca Falls Convention
would signal the birth of the women's rights movement. One particular resolution in
the Declaration of Sentiments would evolve into a full
fledged crusade, the demand for women's suffrage. Decades of political organizing,
marches, and protests would ultimately result
in the 1920 passage of the 19th Amendment,
which guaranteed women the right to vote-- something that couldn't have
happened without the Seneca Falls Convention.
